(READING COMPREHENSION PASSAGE CLASS 9 AND 10 )

SOLVED WORKSHEET 16

Sorry for not apologising, the error is regretted

1. I recently ordered lunch from a takeaway nearby. It was delivered by mistake to the wrong house where the surprised family polished off the unexpected offering. There was no apology from the delivery boy, the restaurant, or indeed the neighbour. It set me thinking: why do we find it so difficult to say ‘sorry’? Elton John was right. Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

2. Some people who say ‘sorry’ do so while suggesting that whatever happened was actually your fault. I once had a visitor reverse the car into some potted plants near the gate, and then stomp on the pots in anger while muttering something about my having put them in the wrong place. And there was no apology either.

3. Politicians live by the dictum attributed to Benjamin Disraeli: Never apologise, never explain. Apologies are seen as a sign of weakness, a chest-size reducing exercise ruining a meticulously constructed image. Thus to expect the author of demonetisation or the Covid vaccine chaos to man up and take responsibility even in a the-buck-stops-here kind of way is futile. To err is human, to apologise for it is foolish.

4. Not apologising isn’t simply a matter of pride or manliness, it probably speaks of a fragile sense of self. Confident people with a strong sense of who they are don’t believe that an apology is the conduit through which their self-worth oozes out.

5. One of the cop-outs newspapers often use when they make a mistake is to say the “error is regretted”. That is no apology, as the impersonal passive voice indicates. It’s like saying, “I am sorry you didn’t like it,” which focuses on your not liking it rather than the mistake itself. The British “deeply regretted” Jallianwalla Bagh a century after the massacre.

6. An insincere apology is an insult. You don’t have to go as far as Henry II did after his minions killed Thomas Beckett the Archbishop of Canterbury, and subject yourself to a series of blows with rods as penance, but it is useful to keep that standard in mind. Grovelling is good.

7. If demonetisation destroyed the economy, what ought the penance to be? Likewise with the avoidable deaths owing to Covid because a nation was unprepared, believing, thanks to its leaders that the virus had been driven away forever? Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

8. Remember the movie A Fish Called Wanda, and the scene where Kevin Kline dangles John Cleese out of a window and asks, “You’re really sorry”? Cleese replies, “I apologise unreservedly. I offer a complete and utter retraction. The imputation was totally without basis in fact, and was in no way fair comment, and was motivated purely by malice, and I deeply regret any distress that my comments may have caused you or your family, and I hereby undertake not to repeat any such slander at any time in the future."

That tone would have sufficed for my unintended lunch guest and could be the template for apologies in general.

( By Suresh Menon a Contributing Editor, The Hindu)

READ THE PASSAGE CAREFULLY AND ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Pick out words from the passage which mean the same as each one of the following.
a) To finish off or eat completely- polished off
b) to walk with a loud heavy step usually in anger(para 2) - stomp
c) a statement that expresses a general truth or a principle (para 3) – dictum
d) a channel for the transmission of something.(para 4) - conduit
e) a method adopted to avoid responsibility (para 5) – cop-outs
f) a loyal follower of an important and powerful person(para 6) – minion
g) to try too hard to please somebody who is more important than you or who can give you something that you want.(para 6) – grovelling.
h) A charge or an acquisition of a wrong doing(para 8) – imputation.
i) Withdrawal of a charge or acquisition (para 8) - retraction
j) a spoken statement about somebody that is not true and that is intended to damage the good opinion that other people have of him/her; the legal offence of making this kind of statement.- slander
k) intention to hurt others feelings – malice

2. What happened to the author when he ordered food a take away restaurant?
The food was delivered to a wrong address and the person who received it wrongly without any hesitation finished off eating the food. Nobody neither the restaurant owner nor the neighbour who received the food made an apology.

3. What does para 8 explains about?
In para 8 the author explains how a apology should be. Taking responsibility of the mistake committed without any bias to the person who was affected.

4. What type of an apology the author is taking about in para 5?
He talks about a newspaper company where they apologise without owing the responsibility.

5. What happens when the apology is insincere?
It is as good as an insult. It is an apology just to please someone.

6. What does the author say about a person who don’t apologise for their mistake?
It reveals the fragile sense of a person. He says that strong people do apologise.

7. What do politicians think about apology?
According to politicians apology is a sign of weakness.